Thursday

Feb 2, 2017 at 12:01 AMSep 25, 2018 at 2:17 PM

A Travis County jury issued the minimum sentence in the county’s first trial for K2 trafficking, sending Tajay Stephens to prison for five years for selling the synthetic marijuana to homeless people in Austin last year.

His sentence came a day after Stephens, 26, was convicted by a jury of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.

He tearfully asked jurors for probation, saying he is not cut out to survive in prison.

Stephens took a chance by going to trial, rejecting a pretrial offer from prosecutors for two years in prison or five years of probation. Once trial began he rejected two more offers — five years in prison, and another that would’ve authorized Judge Tamara Needles to override the jury and issue a sentence of her own.

Two co-defendants, Michael Green and Montrel McCoy, opted against going to trial with each accepting a negotiated plea for two years in prison.

Police say Stephens directed Green and McCoy to make hand-to-hand transactions in May outside of the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless. Police were watching them through a video surveillance system focused on the building, located at the corner of 7th and Neches streets. A search of Stephens’ backpack turned up the drug along with cigar papers used to smoke it. Jurors also listened to an incriminating jailhouse phone call in which Stephens told his aunt that he initially started selling drugs to pay for a truck, but continued selling after the truck was purchased.

NOW READ: Hundreds treated in ‘Summer of Spice’

The trial was Travis County’s first involving K2, or kush, an unpredictable drug that can turn some users violent but leave others in a zombie-like state. The drug is popular among the homeless and grabbed attention last summer with paramedics making routine visits to ARCH. A Travis County paramedic testified that 1,611 K2 users sought treatment in 2016.

With other K2 cases looming, Stephens’ verdict gives the district attorney’s office a look into how juries feel about the drug.

There were 62 arrest warrants issued for K2 dealers, according to testimony from an Austin police detective.